In many countries it is common practise to process certain foodstuffs, particularly various types of meat or meat-based foodstuffs, by the addition thereto of proteinaceous solutions or extracts. The purpose of such treatment is not only to supplement the nutritional content of the product, but often also to modify its texture and/or consistency.
In the meat industry, a number of types of meat products, e.g. pork meat products such as ham, bacon and sirloin, are subjected to a process popularly known as "pumping", in which the natural meat juice--containing, inter alia, plasma proteins and possibly other soluble proteins--which exudes or is pressed from fresh meat on standing (e.g. when slabs or pieces of meat are stacked on top of one another) is reintroduced into the meat, typically by injection via a multiplicity of hollow needles (resembling hypodermic needles) or by more or less prolonged "tumbling" of the slabs or pieces of meat in a vessel containing the collected meat juice. Processes of these types have been employed routinely for many years.
In recent years there has been increasing awareness and concern in relation to the possibility of poultry and other types of meat being infected with, in particular, pathogenic microorganisms such as species of Salmonella or Listeria bacteria, with resultant risk of disease outbreak following human consumption of meat or meat-based foodstuffs infected in this manner. In this connection, there seems to be a considerable risk of meat juice--or indeed other proteinaceous media such as aqueous media containing vegetable protein(s)--becoming infected with undesirable microorganisms, notably pathogenic microorganisms, at some point during the process of collection and delivery for subsequent incorporation into the meat or other foodstuff. It has now been demonstrated in connection with the present invention (see the working examples provided herein) that this risk is very real, and the invention provides a simple, inexpensive and nutritionally very acceptable solution to the problem of ensuring the elimination of, e.g., pathogenic microorganisms from proteinaceous solutions immediately prior to the incorporation of such solutions in foodstuffs.